Bittersweet
by OneYandereGirl
Summary: It's Valentine's Day! 20 year old Sasuke heads home after sparring with Naruto, only to get into an accident thanks to Hinata. In-universe AU; One-shot (fixed because I don't know how to use this site lol).


Sasuke was never good with words. He never felt the need to speak unless it was absolutely necessary. Yet here he was standing in the middle of the Konoha road, in a situation in which he felt the need to scream in rage and in anger.

"Ano… g-gomen Sasuke-san." spoke the petite girl as she took a step back from him. The dark blue-colored hair girl had bumped into him while he was heading back to the Uchiha Compound and ended up dumping chocolate cake all over him.

Not only did he want to run back to his house to get rid of all the sweet-smelling stench off of him, his clothes, and his hair, he also wanted to make sure this girl never saw daylight again. It was already bad enough that she bumped into him right after he had finished sparring with Naruto, which made him sweat profusely and in need of a nice shower, but she had to dump chocolate cake all over him.

 _Chocolate cake._

The sweetest, most disgusting tasting, form of cake there was. Heaven knows who in their right mind would eat that stuff. He remembered how on Valentine's day, his fangirls would always try to give him chocolate in hopes that he would accept them and their so-called feelings. Every. Single. Year. Not only did it make him hate sweets even more, it make him hate chocolate the most. The taste, the smell, the look, everything.

And now that disgusting poison had been dumped all over him.

He glared at the girl. Who did she think she was? How dare she dumped chocolate cake on him (even though it was just an accident). His dark black hair seemed to spike up even more than usual. His eyes unconsciously turned crimson as he felt the rage within him build up. It was bad enough that Naruto had made him stay in the village after the war was over, even though he would have much preferred to travel alone and get away from this place. It was bad enough that he had fangirls stalk him all over the place, even if they always kept their distance because they were afraid of him. Now he had another thing to add to his list of reasons as to why he needed to leave this goddamn hellhole. He never did like Valentine's day because all he would be able to smell during that week was chocolate and now he was drenched in it. He kept his glare on the girl making sure he remembered every single detail of her, so he wouldn't forget who did this to him. He was not going to let this go without doing something.

When the girl noticed that Sasuke was glaring at her with his crimson eyes, her own widened significantly as one of her hands touched her lips and the other closed on her chest. He noticed this and smirked, but the smirk faded into a frown as he started to analyze her.

Midnight-blue hair that looked as soft as silk reached her waist, while her bangs were cut straight with slightly longer strands hanging on the sides that framed her face. She was wearing a large jacket that was purple at the base with light lavender, almost white, colored sleeves coming off of it. Despite the baggy jacket that was covering her petite body, Sasuke could tell that she was hiding her assets. Not that he cared, but her chest wasn't exactly small. At least, not compared to all the other girls that he had known in Konoha. As he looked up to finally memorize the most important part of this girl, he found himself a bit surprised.

Staring back at his own famous sharingan eyes were a pair of wide and round byakugan eyes.

 _Hyuuga Hinata._

Now one may be thinking how Sasuke Uchiha failed to noticed her eyes while he was so busy glaring at the poor girl for what she had accidentally done to him. Yes, Sasuke was an observant person, he wasn't a top shinobi for nothing. However, angry tended to blind him ( hence the reason why he left the village in pursue of revenge all those years ago), and this moment was no different. It wasn't his fault that he hated Valentine's Day. It wasn't his fault that he hated sweets in general. It wasn't his fault that the Hyuuga decided to dump that disgusting sweet and sugary crap that everyone calls chocolate cake onto him. He had every right to be angry and mad! His jacket had crumples of chocolate pieces sticking to the fabric, his right cheek had some chocolate (god knows how chocolate could be creamy) spread in blobs, but the worse part? His dark raven-colored hair was coated with the rest of the cake, or what was left of it at least. His usual spiky hair was so drenched in chocolate cake pieces, and in what seemed like chocolate fillings, that it flattened his hair down.

And yet, the moment he looked into those moonlit eyes of hers, the anger that he had felt only a few minutes ago seemed to have dissipated into the air. His red eyes flickered back into its original black as he continued to stare at the Hyuuga. Her eyes were so beautiful, different from all the others he had seen before. It was unique even among the Hyuugas themselves. Hyuuga eyes were pure white and often dead looking, as if there was no life, no soul within them. However, hers were much different. Instead of having lifeless eyes, hers were white with a hint of lavender that was only noticeable when one actually looked closely at them. It was only until you took the time to look into those eyes were you able to see the beauty of it.

 _Just like her._

By the time that thought had registered in his mind, it was already too late to stop them. Sasuke could only stare at her and her beautiful eyes. Her eyes suited her perfectly. The way her hair framed her face was just right. Her hair was a simple style: dark, straight, and long. Her hair wasn't too bright like Sakura's (thank god it wasn't), nor was it too long like ino's (the girl's bright blonde hair reached all the way down her knees, how she didn't trip every five seconds was a mystery). Unlike Karin's spiky red hair, hinata's was smooth. He liked that. He also liked how she didn't wear makeup like some of the other village girls. She dressed neatly too. A simple outfit consisting of a jacket and dark comfortable looking pants with dark colored sandals. Nothing too flashy, nothing too bright, nothing too complex. Hinata was just simple looking and Sasuke liked that. He liked the simplicity. It matched her. The simplicity made her blend in easily and unnoticeable. To Sasuke though, after a minute of actually looking at her, she stood out like the Northern star at night. She was simple, bright, and beautiful. It didn't help that the sun was practically engulfing her in pure light and the sakura flowers were gently dancing around her. She looked like an angel right then and there. It was because of this, he couldn't help but stare at her. He was so entranced by her and the scenery before him that he had completely forgotten about the cake on his body and completely forgotten why he was so angry in the first place. He was so mesmerized by her that he didn't notice the fallen basket on the ground, where the chocolate cake came from, and the broken box, that held the cake, near her. It was only until Hinata started to move to pick up those two items did he remember what had happened only a few minutes before.

When she finally spoke, Sasuke snapped out of his trance.

" S-Sasuke-san, um… I'm really sorry about bumping into you! I-I was in a rush to get to N-Naruto-kun's because he was throwing a party for everyone and I was going to make a cake for everyone to e-eat because it was V-Valentine's Day today. I was running a bit late and I didn't see you and I'm just really sorry. I-is there any way I could make it up to y-you?!" By the time she had finished talking, her upper half was bent over facing the ground while her hands were holding the basket with her arms dangling near the ground. It took a few seconds for Sasuke to realize that she was bowing to him.

When silence continued on between them, Hinata finally looked up at him. She could feel her face growing hot as she did. Not only did she embarrassed herself by running into someone and spilling her cake onto that person, but the person who she had ran into was none other than Uchiha Sasuke. She had heard all the rumors about him, how he was still a traitor and how he hated females, chocolate, and just about everything. Now Hinata was not one to judge a person. She honestly didn't believe that Sasuke was a bad person. He helped aid in saving the world and a person who did that couldn't honestly be that bad. However, she knew that Sasuke was not the type of person who was all fun, loving, and jolly like Naruto. She could tell the moment she saw him. In fact, he reminded her a bit of Neji. A darker version of him. Though she understood why he was the way he was, and she accepted that. They had never spoken before, but she just knew he wasn't as bad as many people made him out to be. After all, he would occasionally come hang out during some of the gatherings that Naruto would host. The one thing she did know though was that he hated sweets and he had a very short temper. And at this very moment, she knew he was probably pissed off because of her. That was what scared her a bit.

However, as she did look at him, she couldn't find any traces of anger. All she saw was an expressionless face staring back at her. She noticed that he had been staring at her the whole time she had been trying to apologize. Yet not a single word was spoken. She found herself growing even more hot, and she knew she was blushing a lot. Curse her damn face for not being able to control her blushes. If Sasuke noticed (which he did), he didn't show it. This only caused Hinata more stress because she couldn't read what he was thinking. Hinata was usually very good at reading people's emotions, and yet as soon as Uchiha Sasuke stared at her with his expressionless face and body, she couldn't read anything. It frustrated her a bit that she couldn't tell if Sasuke was still angry. When she noticed that he was not going to look away anytime soon, she found herself quickly faced towards the ground once more. Hinata did not like being stared at. It made her uncomfortable and self-conscious about herself. Knowing that Sasuke was still staring at her only made her blush even more because of the uncomfortableness. She wanted to make it up to him. Hinata truly did want to do something for him, but she didn't know what to do. The cake was ruined, she was late to the party, and she had embarrassed herself and Sasuke was the poor victim. She felt tired and useless. Why was she so clumsy? Why didn't she leave the house earlier? All her hard work had gone to waste now because of her clumsiness. All she wanted was a good Valentine's Day. She was looking forward to spending time with her friends and to letting her friends try the cake she had promised to make for them. This day was just terrible. She could feel a bit of tears coming up, so she tried to force them away. The thoughts wouldn't go away though. They kept crawling into her mind and echoing in her head. The thoughts were slowly making her forget the current situation. Hinata was so absorbed with her own thoughts that she almost didn't hear Sasuke speak.

" It's fine."

Hinata snapped out of her thoughts as the words finally began to register in her mind. Her eyes widened as she realized what he was saying. She quickly snapped her head up to face him.

" E-excuse me? What did you just say?" She gasped. Hinata wasn't sure she had heard correctly. Surely, she had expected Sasuke to be at least a little bit annoyed. Yet when she looked at him, there wasn't a hint of anger or annoyance.

Instead, Sasuke only looked at her with an unreadable expression.

" I said it's fine."

It was the truth. The dark haired man simply could not find it within himself to stay angry after being shocked by his own thoughts. Rather than staying any longer, he decided to head home to wash off the chocolate cake. However, Hinata could not simply just let this go. How could she? It was her fault in the first place, if she hadn't ran so fast, she would not have bumped into him and landed all of that cake onto him. She had to do something, yet she couldn't think of what. Looking around, desperate to find something anything that could somehow make up for what she did (even though she knew nothing would really make up for embarrassing Sasuke), she found that there was a piece of dark chocolate cake somehow still in her basket. The dark chocolate cake piece was wrapped nicely with a blue ribbon, the only piece out of four that had survived. Hinata had not only made a giant cake for everyone to share, but she had also specifically made four pieces of cake (and individually wrapped them) for Neji, Shino, Shikamaru, and Tenten.

While the regular cake was made out of the normal sweet chocolate, these cakes were made with rich dark chocolate. She had made them for her cousin and her three friends because she knew that they were not very big fans of sweets, so she wanted to make something that would suit their tastes. She had wrapped each piece with a different color ribbon, so that she knew what to add in and who to give them to. She had wrapped Tenten's piece with a pink ribbon and had added red bean in the middle. She knew Tenten loved eating red bean soup for dessert, so she had wanted to surprise her with some. She had wrapped Shikamaru's with a green ribbon and Shino's with a black ribbon and had added a bit of hazelnuts, almonds, and walnuts on top of both their pieces of cake. The last piece of the dark chocolate cake, Neji's, was wrapped with a blue ribbon. Hinata knew that her cousin preferred things simple, so she had left the cake as it was. However, being in the situation that she was in now, she had no other choice but to give the last remaining piece to Sasuke.

" W-wait!"

Sasuke was already near the corner of the street when he had heard her call to him. Turning around, he saw the dark blue haired girl running up towards him carrying her basket from earlier. When she was finally close enough for him to look at her face to face, Hinata began to feel nervous. Sasuke could see her cheeks redden as she opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again when nothing came out. He really did not want to waste any more time in being drenched with chocolate (he could already smell the stench clawing its way into his clothes), so he turned around once more to head back home. When Hinata saw that he was leaving again, she quickly stopped him. Grabbing the edge of his shirt, she pulled him back. Before Sasuke could fully turn around, Hinata shoved the wrapped piece of cake near his face.

" Please take this! As an apology!"

No words could describe the amount of disgust and shock that was written on his face. While the dark haired man wasn't angry at Hinata, he was certainly not amused. Not only was he drowning in stupid gross-smelling chocolate, but now he was being given a chocolate cake as an apology. Chocolate cake as an apology. He really did not have any words to say nor did he want to say anything at all, so he just gave the poor girl a glare like she was crazy. The blue haired girl must have realized what she had done because when she saw his coal colored eyes glaring at her, her cheeks turned an even deeper shade of red, causing her to break eye contact with him.

A couple minutes passed as Sasuke continued to glare at her, while Hinata was too busy admiring the ground. However, when the deep shade of red on her cheeks started to fade a bit, she finally looked at him again. He was still glaring at her when she did, which made her feel nervous and a bit scared. Taking a deep breath, she composed herself enough to talk. Although she was still nervous and blushed from the uncomfortableness, Hinata knew she couldn't just let this issue go without at least trying to make it up to Sasuke. It just wasn't in her nature to apologize without doing something, after all actions speak louder than words...even if her actions did make her seem ridiculous and a bit stupid (or crazy, as with the look that Sasuke had given her and still was giving her).

" I-it's not regular chocolate. It's not very sweet, even a bit bitter. It's dark chocolate. I made it f-for my cousin, but I want you to have it. Please take this as an apology from me Sasuke-san! I k-know you don't like sweets, but I promise that this won't be! I have several friends who also don't seem to like sweet things, but they always seem to love these sweets that I make. What happened just now was my fault and I really want to apologize to you. So please accept this; if you don't like it, you can throw it away later."

By the time Hinata had finished talking, she was already looking down at the ground again. Her cheeks had turned deep red; one of her hands was clamped near her chest, the other holding out the wrapped delicacy; and she felt extremely nervous. She really did hope Sasuke would accept.

Even though they had never spoken before, she thought Sasuke was a good person. A flawed person, but a good one nonetheless. She had heard many stories from her friends, especially from a certain blonde haired man and a pink haired girl. Although many of the villagers had called him a traitor (most still do) and he had done many bad things, Hinata never got the impression that he was a bad person. He certainly was scary no doubt about that, but she just never got a sense of evil from him. Still, she didn't really know much about Sasuke. Having this be the first time they have ever talked alone however, wasn't making any good impressions in her favor.

Sasuke couldn't help, but feel a bit irritated with her. His day was pretty much ruined thanks to her (as if it wasn't already because of the holiday, who in their right mind came up with this stupid day anyways?). Yet, she insisted on making it worse by giving him the one thing he did not want.

However, he saw her sincerity. She was trying to make amends, even if it was a crappy idea. He realized that he didn't know much about the byakugan user. They had met and seen each other hundreds of times (even though most of the time it was he who was being forced into socializing with people he didn't want to talk to), but never had they spoken to one another. He certainly didn't care to nor would want to again, but she did interest him somewhat. Her features made her look beautiful, that wasn't a lie. He could understand why so many men had tried to court her (all would fail as quickly as they started though thanks to a certain overprotective cousin); he couldn't understand what made her so interesting other than her looks though. Maybe it was because they had never gotten to know each other well, but Sasuke just didn't want to talk to her. She was pretty, but plain. In fact, all the girls in this village were plain to him. He always felt annoyed, bored, or just drained whenever a girl would try to speak to him. Then again, he hated socializing in general. He couldn't even stand talking to his blonde best friend and their comrades for more than a hour and that was if Sasuke was in a good mood.

Yet here he was standing in the middle of the street, socializing with a girl who had just dumped chocolate all over him.

Wonderful.

Sasuke sighed a long, deep sigh. He really hated Valentine's day. However, he decided to take her cake and accept her apology. It was already a bad day, why not just give in and move on? Let today be a bad day, and tomorrow be a bit better (at least that's what Sasuke really hoped for). Seeing that he had taken her cake, Hinata felt surprisingly happy and satisfied. Bidding him good-bye, Hinata turned to head towards Naruto's.

However, before Sasuke could start walking back to his house, Hinata turned around and called out to him one last time.

" Sasuke-san!" She softly spoke.

" Yes?" He asked.

" I hope you enjoy the cake." She meant it. Giving him her most genuine smile, Hinata turned back to leave; leaving Sasuke to watch as she walked away.

Hinata had caught him off-guard. Sasuke was not expecting her to smile at him. He had seen her blush and nervous plenty of times; he had seen her sad when a friend would get hurt during a mission; he had seen her laugh at the stupid jokes that Naruto and Kiba would make (how she found them funny, he'll never know); he had seen her worried for everyone's safety; hell, he had even seen her smile plenty of times. He had seen all of that, and he never really cared. He had no reason to, it was just like with any other girl. They all did those things.

But this was the first time she had ever given him a smile.

A smile that was directed at him and only for him. It was beautiful. It made Sasuke want to see her smile at him more. He couldn't explain it, but for whatever reason, Hinata's smile made him feel warm. It reminded him of something he hadn't had for a long time. While he had one now, it would never be the same and it could never replace what he once had. It was something that he missed often and would often end up being sleepless because of it. It was something he would never get back. It was something he had longed for more than anything. It was something he still longed for more than anything. Something that he would always long for.

 _A family._

He decided he liked seeing Hinata smile at him. It felt nice. However, he remembered he had to go home and wash off the stink from his body and clothes, so without dwelling on the matter any longer, he turned around and headed home.

Later on, during the evening when Naruto's party had ended, the blonde man had decided to visit his best friend. While complaining about how Sasuke did not come to his party, he had found Hinata's cake in the fridge. Naruto, being unable to eat any of Hinata's delicious sweets (thanks to a certain accident that had occurred earlier in the day), asked how Sasuke had gotten that and had tried to eat it. At first, the sharingan user was going to let Naruto have it, he didn't like chocolate after all.

But as soon as the blonde man opened his mouth to take a bite, Hinata's words popped into his mind and he remembered her smile. For whatever reason, that caused Sasuke to punch the blonde and take the cake from him. Naruto, of course was confused, but when Sasuke called him an idiot, he forgot all about it and proceeded to fight him. Naruto got distracted easily, something Sasuke had taken advantaged of over the couple of years he had been living here. Eventually though, the blonde had to go, leaving Sasuke alone in his own home.

Sitting by his window, Sasuke stared out into the sky. It was already near midnight, when the Uchiha had finally decided to try the cake. Although it was in a plate sitting in front of him, Sasuke was at the windowsill still staring out into the night. The stars were bright and glistening, reminding him of a certain Hyuuga. The moon was bright and full tonight, something that he loved. However, the moon tonight seemed to remind him of her opal eyes. Overall though, It was quiet and peaceful, the reasons why nighttime was his favorite part of the day.

On most nights, memories of his family would flood into his head. He would remember stargazing with his older brother, someone who he felt guilty over his death and who he'd missed very much. He would remember his mother's gentle arms that embraced him every day. His father would disapprove of the softness his mother would show, but he would smile at Sasuke nonetheless. He truly missed them and often dreamt of them, if he was not having any nightmares. He missed their warmth, their little happiness that was shared every so often. He just missed them. However, tonight the thing that came to his mind wasn't his family.

It was Hyuuga Hinata.

Their encounter today seemed to have stayed in his mind. He couldn't really understand why, he was not interested in conversing with the girl. She was pretty, but that was just it. He wasn't interested in her at all.

And yet, he felt warm.

Her smile gave him warmth. It was something that he couldn't seem to get out of his mind. It was a smile without a motive, something he wasn't used to. In all his years, people who smiled at him would either have a secret motive or it was fake. Besides, Naruto and his family, no one else had ever given him a genuine smile. It was a smile that felt nice to receive.

His thoughts caused him to chuckle a bit. Looking at the night sky, he smiled. A smile caused because of her small gesture; a smile that he would never show to anyone else. To others, such a small action felt insignificant, but to Sasuke it was something that he cherished. Even if he would never admit it in this lifetime, he would always cherish these small insignificant moments that his comrades gave to him. May be deep down inside he did care about the others, after staying in the village for a couple of years, but he would never show it.

Turning to the cake, he used a fork to cut a bit of it off and placed it in his mouth. Chewing ever so slowly, he was surprised at the taste. The cake was moist and the chocolate cream was smooth and fluffy. The chocolate frosting was thick and creamy, but did not overpower the cake. Both the cream and the frosting made only a thin layer to the cake. It tasted bitter, with a hint of sweetness.

Overall, Sasuke enjoyed it.

The bittersweet tasting cake reminded Sasuke of their meeting. Although he was angry and irritated by today's events, he was somewhat glad that it had happen. He would not have been able to try her cake otherwise. He would definitely need to talk to Hinata again and ask for more of her baking. Sasuke would make sure of it. Softly chuckling a bit longer, he continued to enjoy his cake.

Perhaps this Valentine's day wasn't so bad afterall.


End file.
